An epidemiological study of byssinosis among Lancashire cotton workers.

Raw cotton is brought to the Lancashire spinning mills in tightly compressed bales. The bales are opened and teased out in the cotton-room. The cotton is then conveyed to the blow-room where some of the dirt and short fibres are removed. In the card-room the cotton is combed by the wire teeth of the carding engines and passed through a series of machines called combers,* draw, slubbing, intermediate, and roving frames which draw it out into a thin strand (" roving ") ready for spinning. These preparatory processes are dusty and give rise to a respiratory disease called byssinosis. All men who work in the cottonand blow-rooms are exposed to dust, but the strippers and grinders who clean and sharpen the teeth of the carding engines are probably most exposed. The carder (foreman), the under-carder, the card setter and fitter, and the women " tenters " who mind the various machines in the card-room do not do very dusty work but are exposed to dust emitted from the carding engines. All who work in these rooms come within the provisions of the byssinosis compensation scheme. The spinners, working in the muleand ring-rooms, which are not very dusty, are not eligible for compensation. The disease has a characteristic history. At first the worker notices tightness of the chest and breathlessness on Mondays or on the first day back at work after an absence. On the next day he has recovered completely. These symptoms may get worse and occur on Tuesdays and then on all working days. Eventually there is severe and permanent disability. Greenhow (1861) and Leach (1863) described the disease nearly a hundred years ago and emphasized its serious effects on the health of card-room workers. But the first measurement of its effects was given by the Registrar-General in his report for 1910-12 (published in 1923), when the death